🎉 Happy New Year 2025 to everyone!

My wish for all of us is to develop daily habits that will help us live long and healthy lives

🎉 Happy New Year 2025 to everyone!

This year, my wish for all of us is to develop daily habits that will help us live long and healthy lives. One of the topics I’m most passionate about is longevity. Over the holidays, I spent my time watching the Netflix documentary "Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones" by Dan Buettner.

In this series, he travels to Blue Zones places like Okinawa, Ikaria, Singapore, Nicoya, Sardinia, and Loma Linda to learn the secrets of long-living people.

This documentary resonated deeply with me because it’s one of the reasons I’ve started researching traditional African architecture and ancestral lifestyles. I realized something profound: our ancestors lived better and healthier lives than we often do today.

Based on the documentary, here are 4 daily habits practiced by people in Blue Zones:

1️⃣ Outlook: Relax often, have faith, and live with purpose.

2️⃣ Eat Wisely: Enjoy a plant-based diet, drink natural wine (in moderation!), and practice mindful eating.

3️⃣ Move Naturally: Do manual work, tend a garden, and walk often.

4️⃣ Connect: Build strong communities, nurture your relationships, and prioritize family.

From my perspective, there’s a fifth habit: the environment. Dan Buettner emphasizes that longevity isn’t just about personal habits it’s also about the spaces we live in. The environment plays a crucial role in how long we live.

In the Blue Zones featured in the documentary, people often live in homes made with durable, sustainable materials, surrounded by green spaces and vegetable gardens. This inspired me to take action.

For the past two years, I’ve made it a habit to:

✔ Use sustainable materials for every project I design.

✔Include a vegetable garden in the homes I create—even if my clients don’t request it.

As an architect, I’m deeply aware of how the environments I design impact the health and well-being of my clients and their families.

👉 What about you? What are your daily resolutions for 2025 to ensure you step into 2026 in great health?

Share your thoughts with me in the comments—I’d love to hear them!

My name is OMON ABULE SOWO. I'm an architect with a passion for African architecture.

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References

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https://www.bluezones.com/documentary/

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/live-to-100-secrets-of-the-blue-zones-documentary

https://www.assuredallies.com/what-it-takes-to-join-the-centenarian-club/